as small as a world and as large as alone

1:19pm May 30, 2012

autisticproblems:

Autistic Problem Number 15: When people question your sexuality or gender identification because you’re autistic.

[Submitted by argilla]

Both both both.

When I came out as a lesbian, my mother said that most straight girls go through a lesbian phase early in adolescence. She said maybe since I had developmental delays, I was just going through that stage later than average.

(Then every time I had a guy friend she would find ways of inserting little tidbits of… how do I even describe it? If I described staying up all night talking to a guy she’d act knowing and say she and my dad did that when they first met. When he married someone, she asked me if I was okay with that. If the same exact things happened with a woman she wouldn’t even hint at the possibility that I might be attracted to her. I guess that’s normal parent in denial stuff, but it was amplified by disability.) As far as gender identity goes, I don’t have one. I can’t imagine having one. And then that gets pinned on some purported autistic lack of self awareness.

112 notes